Cold pillow...

My husband and I have been together a little over 4 years. In all that time I can count on one hand how many times I've slept alone. Twice since we've been together he had to go out of town to work for the apartment complex he works for and once I went on a trip to Nashville with my best friend Raye. That was it. Two nights each.
Well, consider tonight the next time. We are going out of town this weekend for the New year down to our family house at Lake Barkley. Bob decided it would be nice, since he is off tomorrow and I am not, to take the older boys down early so they could have some bonding time and ride he new four wheeler without "us" in the way. It sounded like a great idea to me. Until now. I have gotten to the point where I realize I'll be sleeping alone. His cold pillow next to mine. We are the couple who sleeps touching. Whether it been spooning or tangled legs. There is always contact. Im going to miss that tonight.
My youngest son Josh is here. And I called my sister and asked if Alex could stay the night with him. The older boys even took my dog Daisy so I dont have her here to cuddle and warn me of intruders. Yes, Im one of those paranoid people who always hear something. I had asked my sister to keep my youngest Josh tomorrow while I work and she said of course like I knew  she would. But then she asked if it wouldnt be easier for the boys, Josh and Alex, to just sleep at her house. Heck No! I don't want to sleep in this house alone. I'd be up all night hearing sounds. I know that Josh and Alex are only 9 and most likely won't save me from any intruder. But their presence will help me from concentrating on that intruder. Or potential intruder.
So even though my bed will be cold and empty. My house will at least be filled with little boys playing video games all hours of the night. If that doesnt scare away any potential intruder I dont know what will.
Well, I'm going to start reading now. Hoping to make myself tired enough to be able to sleep tonight. Alone.
:(

Think I might...: "I think I might..."

Think I might...: "I think I might...": "'I think I might....' I start way too many of my sentences this way. I have no clue whether it is the pressure of actually following throug..."

Taking it to the next level! Stepping it up!

This summer I started a Photography business with one of my best friends, Ashley Meredith. We don't have a studio yet but it's something we dream of one day having. Right now what we have is the shared passion and love of Photography. I don't remember how it all started. I don't even remember whose idea it was. All I remember is the hours of preparations we put into starting our enterprise!

It all started with the the status on a facebook page asking for potential names. We had so many wonderful and creative names thrown at us. I knew it was going to be a hard decision until we read one particular idea. It said "Keep Smilin' Photography". See Ashley's father passed away a few years ago and that was one of his favorite sayings. I loved it immediately and Ashley did too! It felt right for us. One person commented that it didn't really sound professional but it sounded fun and easy going and exactly us!

So we had a name. Next Ashley got us set up with an email address (keepsmilinphotos@aol.com) then we fumbled through setting up a free website. (http://www.keepsmilinphotography.webs.com/) See the free site was okay but we wanted better. So we purchased a domain and contacted our good friend Neil Brown to set us up a good website. We can thank him for our current website. (http://www.keepsmilinphotography.com/) It's completely awesome! Thanks Neil!

Our website had some hits but our biggest success as advertisement so far has been and will continue to be our facebook page! (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Keep-Smilin-Photography/100872646636971) We have 577 fans right now and it goes up every week. I've had many appointments set off of this page and I'm thankful for every person who has helped it and our reputation grow by sharing it!

So we have an email, a great web page, and a facebook fan page. We needed a logo! That again is thank to Neil Brown. He is awesome with a computer and know that even with his current limitations he will find his way again. (story for another day) He sent us several. I am sure he thinks I am totally picky because I asked to change it many times. But he was patient and wonderful and came through with a logo I found absolutely perfect! (see above) With the logo, Ashley and I got creative and bought iron on transfers and made a few tee shirts for each of us. This summer I'm going to have a few screen printed professionally. If you know of anyone who does this give us a shout! We used Picnik for our photo editing at first then we graduated to Photoshop CS5 which we both love.

With all the prep work complete all we had to do was shoot the pictures, Edit the pictures, and deliver the pictures. Which brought us to pricing. We were fairly new to photography for money and felt that we needed to get our names out there and show what we are capable of taking before charging alot. So we came up with a very attractive price of 7 portraits on a CD for $25. each additional portrait $5 each. Problem with that is we'd usually take between 100-300 pictures per sitting and we always ended up with anywhere from 50-200 edited portraits. That is an insane amount of work for just $25. We talked about this and told ourselves that we'd cut back on the number of photographs we shot. Even cutting back we ended up with alot of work. And usually the majority of them went unpurchased. That brings me to where we are right now.

We've taken thousands of pictures. Proved to ourselves and hopefully others we are capable of. We feel that in the last year we have improved our techniques not only with photographing but with photo editing as well. So we've decided, its time. Its time to step it up and ask for what we are worth. We are raising our prices in the near future. We are currently in discussion of offering several packages tailored to our clients needs. Designed to both limit us to photographing only what our clients want as well as paying us a fair price for us and our client. Its a big step for us to take. After all, what if people think we aren't worth a price increase. Well, we are taking the risk. Don't panic. Our prices will not be outrageous and they are still very fair. They just compensate us a little more for the hours of work we put into not only taking the photographs but processing and editing them. No photo shoot I've ever done has taken less than 5 hours total. Most people do not realize what goes on after the shoot.

So if your a previous client or a potential client we'd like to know what you think. As soon as we come to an agreement on the packages I'll post them not only on here but the web pages as well. The last thing I'd like to say is thank you for supporting a budding business. We appreciate all of your continuing support.

And one, And two ,and one, and two!

So i just finished my workout! Twice last week and hopefully three times this week. Wed and then Friday. I really want to get my ass back into shape! Problem is I am completely addicted to candy and Dr Pepper! took the first step today and drank a diet Dr pepper. I like it okay. Its just not the same! And of course as I'm thinking about working out I'm popping star burst in my mouth. Not just one but the whole package! Ugh! Then I pick up the boys at their Gma Bettys and I eat not just one but two pieces of her Pineapple upside down cake. Its a weakness of mine. Its crazy that I would pick the holidays to get fit! We just spend most of the summer on Lake Barkley and this summer I'd like my husband to really love the way I look! Not that he's ever complained before. He would tell me if i was 400 lbs and dressed in a potato sack I was sexy. He just loves me. I want to give him something to look at!
So as my son and step daughter are training to get into a boxing ring to knock someone out, I'm training to get fit and loose oh say, 20 lbs. (I'd def settle for 15 lbs).

So details, two years ago I lost 30 lbs in 4 months by cutting my calories to 1200 a day, eating right, walking daily, and doing dance cardio and Pilate's. This time I don't have near the discipline to cut the calories. I'm going to cut it down in portions and try to eat smaller meals and even eat healthier because hey, I love healthy food! (i also love candy and pop) but I'm going to try to step up the work outs. I want tone muscles! I want abs that aren't covered in a large inter tube of FAT! As soon as the weather breaks to a bit warmer I'm going to start walking on my lunch again. May even take to doing my workout Pilate's videos on my lunch in the office again. I'm using boxing work outs to burn calories and let me tell you it does the job! I'm going to devote at least an hour three nights a week and an hour of my weekend to working out! I'm going to go for muscle confusing and mix up my workouts. I'm going to do my thing! Wish me luck! :)